Summary
The more open-world games have ventured into the future, the more they have given in to the idea that bigger means better, which inadvertently results in an overwhelming amount of content that is all but thrown at players. While this can result in a longer average playtime for anopen-world game, however, the approach ultimately takes the joy of discovery out of the whole experience and can also have the opposite effect in the long run — an empty world that, despite being filled with content, has no life, purpose, or wonder to it at all. That’s where games likeThe Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remasteredcome in, which apply an open-world formula that has become increasingly rare over the last two decades.
When players first stepped out into the world ofThe Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivionalmost twenty years ago, it was presented to them as an open-ended sandbox that refused to hold their hand while they crossed the street. This resulted in one of the most formative RPG experiences for those players, thereby cementingOblivionin their history forever and subjecting everything that came after to it. Now, sinceOblivion Remasteredtruly is a remaster rather than a remake, that philosophy remains intact, though with a brand-new color palette to emphasize the underlying tension of the narrative and environmental storytelling that is brought to life even more by Unreal Engine 5.
Oblivion Remastered Shows the Personality of the Original Game’s World
Oblivion Remastered’s Muted Color Palette Reinforces the Underlying Tension
While it hasn’t necessarily been universally received well,Oblivion Remasteredexchanged the vibrant, saturated world of the original game for a muted, brown, and almost hazy color palette. Some likely believe this took the life out ofOblivion’s world, and, to a certain extent, they would be right. However, the heart ofOblivion’s narrativeshows a world on the brink of destruction, with a tension below the surface ready to suck the life out of it at any moment. As such, a more muted color palette actually fits better in the grand scheme of things, and it helps characterize the world more appropriately.
Oblivion Remastered Environmental Storytelling Fills Out Its World
Something elseOblivion Remasteredhighlights about the original game’s world and even brings it to life in a fuller, more meaningful way is its knack forenvironmental storytelling. Rather than spoon-feeding every quest and story to players,Oblivion Remastered, just like the original game, encourages players to allow their curiosity to not only lead them but to fill in the gaps of its world.
Players might wander into a dungeon only to find the corpses of some goblins and Imperial soldiers lying on the ground there, with no notes or visual and audio cues that would explain what happened. In this way,Obliviontells its own story, and this is actually how it is throughout the game’s depiction ofThe Elder Scrolls' Cyrodiil. In a way, this effectively makesOblivion Remastered’s world a character itself, which has been a philosophy of director Todd Howard’s for quite some time in bothThe Elder ScrollsandFalloutseries.
Something elseOblivion Remasteredhighlights about the original game’s world and even brings it to life in a fuller, more meaningful way is its knack for environmental storytelling.
Oblivion Remasteredbrings players back to a version of Cyrodiil that doesn’t rely on quest markers, constant rewards, or regular cutscenes to feel alive. Instead, its world feels meaningful simply because it gives players room to wonder, to get lost, and to uncover stories that are never fully explained. Rather than forcing players into a narrative, it trusts them to build one of their own, and in doing so, it makes the world itself feel like one of themost important charactersOblivionhas ever had.
